Summary
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1.
Spirochaeta aurantia fermented glucose-1-14C primarily to ethanol, acetate, CO2, and H2. Most of the 14C-label was recovered from carbon 2 of ethanol and acetate, whereas essentially no radioactivity was present in CO2. Phosphofructokinase, fructosediphosphate aldolase, triosephosphate isomerase, and glyceraldehydephosphate dehydrogenase activities were detected in cell extracts. These data indicate that S. aurantia ferments glucose to pyruvate via the Embden-Meyerhof pathway.
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2.
Whole cells and cell extracts exhibited a coenzyme A-dependent CO2-pyruvate exchange. No formate-pyruvate exchange was detected, nor was formate involved in CO2 or H2 production. Acetyl phosphate formation from pyruvate by cell extracts was markedly stimulated by the presence of CoA in reaction mixtures. It was concluded that the organism utilizes a clostridial-type phosphoroclastic system to form acetyl-coenzyme A, CO2, and H2 from pyruvate. Acetyl CoA is metabolized to acetate via phosphotransacetylase and acetate kinase, or converted to ethanol by a double reduction involving aldehyde and alcohol dehydrogenase activities.
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3.
A rubredoxin, purified from cell extracts of S. aurantia, exhibited absorption maxima at 275, 376, and 490 nm (oxidized), and 275, 312, and 336 nm (NaBH4-reduced).
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Breznak, J.A., Canale-Parola, E. Metabolism of Spirochaeta aurantia . Archiv. Mikrobiol. 83, 261–277 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00425239
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00425239